Why this ride
From Sirmione it runs 206 km to Sirmione; allow about 4 h 05 of riding. The stops in between: Bande - Corte Carpani, Mantua and Sabbioneta, Sabbioneta and back through Mantua and Sabbioneta. The line favours views over speed.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
San Sivino and Sabbioneta
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 206 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 4 h 05
- Journey
- Recorded itinerary
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. San Sivino
On the western shore of Lake Garda, between Manerba and Moniga, the little bay of San Sivino hides something very old under its shallows. People lived here in the Bronze Age in villages built on wooden piles at the water's edge, and the remains of their posts, tools and pottery survive in the mud of the lake. The site is one of the prehistoric pile dwellings around the Alps that UNESCO listed in 2011, a series of more than a hundred sites spread across six countries. There is nothing to see above the water, but knowing that the shore was settled thousands of years ago adds a quiet depth to an afternoon by the lake.
Read the complete San Sivino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
San Sivino is where the day begins. Next is Bande - Corte Carpani.
2. Bande - Corte Carpani
Corte Carpani is the kind of place that the name tells you most about. A corte in this part of Lombardy is a farm courtyard, with a farmhouse, barns and outbuildings arranged around a square, and the old estates in the Mantuan hills often kept the names of the families who owned them for a few generations. It sits among the low moraine hills south of Lake Garda, near the villages of Solferino and Cavriana, in a country of vines, maize, cypress rows and brick farm towers.
Read the complete Bande - Corte Carpani write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Bande - Corte Carpani comes up about 31 km into the recorded legs. Next is Mantua and Sabbioneta.
3. Mantua and Sabbioneta
Approach Mantua from the north across the causeway and you see why it was so hard to conquer: the city rises from water on three sides, encircled by lakes formed from the river Mincio, its domes and towers reflected in the still surface. For nearly four centuries it belonged to the Gonzaga family, who turned a marshy town into one of the most brilliant courts of the Renaissance, and Mantua is listed by UNESCO together with Sabbioneta, the small ideal city that a branch of the same family built some thirty kilometres away.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
about 67 km into the recorded legs you reach Mantua and Sabbioneta. Next is Sabbioneta.
4. Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta is a Renaissance experiment: a whole town built from scratch in the second half of the sixteenth century by Vespasiano Gonzaga, a soldier, scholar and minor prince of the great Mantuan family, who wanted a capital laid out according to the ideals of the age. He got it. Inside its star-shaped walls the streets run in a regular grid, and in a few hundred metres you pass a ducal palace, a long gallery built to show off his collection of ancient sculpture, a summer palace, and one of the earliest purpose-built theatres in Europe, the Teatro all'Antica, designed by Vincenzo Scamozzi. Sabbioneta and Mantua were listed together by UNESCO in 2008 as two contrasting visions of the Renaissance city.
Read the complete Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
Sabbioneta, about halfway. Next is back through Mantua and Sabbioneta.
5. back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Mantua and Sabbioneta write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta sits at 139 km, about halfway. Next is back through Bande - Corte Carpani.
6. back through Bande - Corte Carpani
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete Bande - Corte Carpani write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
back through Bande - Corte Carpani comes up about 175 km into the recorded legs. Next is San Sivino.
7. San Sivino
Return visit. Read the place description above.
Read the complete San Sivino write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
San Sivino closes the day.
Leg by leg
San Sivino to Bande - Corte Carpani
San Sivino → Bande - Corte Carpani is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Bande - Corte Carpani to Mantua and Sabbioneta
Bande - Corte Carpani → Mantua and Sabbioneta is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Mantua and Sabbioneta to Sabbioneta
Mantua and Sabbioneta → Sabbioneta is 36 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
Sabbioneta to back through Mantua and Sabbioneta
Sabbioneta → back through Mantua and Sabbioneta is 38 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta to back through Bande - Corte Carpani
back through Mantua and Sabbioneta → back through Bande - Corte Carpani is 34 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.
back through Bande - Corte Carpani to San Sivino
back through Bande - Corte Carpani → San Sivino is 31 km of rhythm rather than effort. Let it flow and let the view breathe.